Emulating and even exceeding his spectacular 2023 season was all the time going to be a tall order for Sepp Kuss, however the Visma-Lease a Bike rider would have most well-liked 2024 to go just a little extra in line with plan.
The American, who received the 2023 Vuelta a España regardless of not being one in every of his group’s protected GC riders in the beginning, struggled for consistency all through final season and missed the Tour de France after contracting Covid.
Although he received a stage and the GC of the Vuelta a Burgos, he did not defend his Vuelta title, ending 14th and greater than 20 minutes adrift of the eventual victor Primož Roglič.
“It wasn’t the perfect season for me. Till then I’d all the time had fairly good years with none dangerous luck or diseases, so it was the primary season that I had any setbacks,” the Coloradan, 30, stated.
“I used to be glad to win a minimum of one race and I may be pleased with that, however general it was a disgrace to overlook the Tour and every little thing that comes with that. Not yearly is an ideal upward trajectory. It’s a must to roll with the dangerous luck and regular setbacks after they occur.
“As a bike owner you all the time want a sure stage of confidence primarily based on what you’ve achieved up to now. Coaching is one factor, however when the outcomes don’t meet your expectations, it’s all the time troublesome.
“I believe that’s regular for any athlete to must bounce again from that. It was no catastrophe or something, however I do know it’s exhausting to all the time be at your prime stage or to remain there.”
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Kuss’s 2025 program received’t be too dissimilar to what it normally is: after racing the Volta ao Algarve, Volta a Catalunya and Itzulia Basque Nation within the early spring, he’ll be one in every of Jonas Vingegaard’s key helpers within the Tour de France, earlier than then returning to the Vuelta for an eighth successive look.
“There’s no want to alter the recipe,” he stated. “The principle aims are the Grand Excursions. I wish to be at my finest in these two races. I do know for the spring I’m not all the time at my finest, however I take advantage of these races as a constructing block for the summer season races.
“This yr I’ll have an extended and slower construct up. Final yr was shorter however extra intensive at first. Within the first races I felt good, however then I tapered off later. I simply must go to the primary races with none expectation, see how it’s, and with the main focus all the time on the summer season.”
The unassuming Kuss, the primary American to win a three-week race since Chris Horner additionally received the Vuelta 10 years earlier, indicated that he was ready to park his personal GC ambitions in 2025.
“It is a function I’ve by no means actually been in other than the Vuelta final yr and even within the 2023 Vuelta it was by no means remotely on my radar to be a frontrunner in a Grand Tour, nevertheless it turned out that means,” he stated. “I wouldn’t say upfront I’m searching for management in a Grand Tour, or searching for the other.
“For me, if there are alternatives that come alongside the way in which, I’ll take them like I’ve up to now, but additionally up to now every time I’ve carried out it’s by no means been in a means that upfront it was recognized that I’d be the one to carry out.
“I take each race in my stride and see the place I can get a possibility. I’m not seeking to overtake anyone throughout the group. We now have some tremendous good riders and I wish to assist them first after which we’ll see what I can get out of it for myself.”
In returning to be initially an excellent mountain domestique, Kuss stated: “It’s a task I actually like, and it’s a task that’s quite a bit simpler than being a frontrunner in a race. I believe it’s a task that I can do fairly properly, and do it comfortably and luxuriate in it.”
His private purpose for the forthcoming season is to be at his finest when he must be. “I wish to be extra constant, keep wholesome, and have good luck,” he stated.
“These days in biking, you want every day and every week to construct on, as a result of should you miss just a little bit, you discover it instantly within the races except you’ve got loopy expertise, like some guys.”